BURBANK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Nickelodeon will take viewers on a spooky Halloween adventure throughout
Bikini Bottom with the brand-new, stop-motion special, SpongeBob
SquarePants: The Legend of Boo-Kini Bottom. In the visual style of
classic stop-motion animation TV specials, The Legend of Boo-Kini
Bottom tells the story of the Flying Dutchman (Brian Doyle Murray)
who wants to make sure everyone in town is scared, especially SpongeBob,
who thinks scary things are funny. The special will premiere in October
2017 on Nickelodeon.

Bikini Bottom is decked out for Halloween and features Sandy's treedome
as a mad scientist's lab, including a giant remotely operated Acorn
Monster; Mr. Krabs' restaurant as "The Horrors of the Chum Bucket,"
displaying scenes of Plankton torturing food; and Plankton's restaurant
as "The Horrors of the Krusty Krab," telling the story of Mr. Krabs
turning customers into Krabby Patties and more.

The characters don Halloween costumes, with SpongeBob as a flower,
Patrick as a knight, Sandy as a mad scientist, Mr. Krabs as a dollar
bill, Plankton as a devil, Squidward as himself, and Karen as a cat. SpongeBob
SquarePants: The Legend of Boo-Kini Bottomfeatures an original
song, "The Scare Song," written by Mr. Lawrence, music by Eban Schletter
and performed by the Flying Dutchman's crew of pirate ghosts.

The Legend of Boo-Kini Bottomis being produced at Screen
Novelties, a Los Angeles-based stop-motion animation production company,
where miniature puppets and sets bring Bikini Bottom to life in three
dimensions. The production features 27 unique sets, across five stages,
where 15 boxes of breakfast cereal were used to create texture on Bikini
Bottom's coral reefs; eight pounds of glitter were used to decorate
SpongeBob's Halloween pineapple house; hundreds of popsicle sticks
created the planks of the rollercoaster track that Patrick and SpongeBob
ride; and "black lights" were used to create a fluorescent glow across
the puppets and sets.

Marc Ceccarelli and Vincent Waller are the supervising producers on SpongeBob
SquarePants. The special was written by Mr. Lawrence, with Brian
Morante serving as the storyboard director. The special is being
directed by Mark Caballero and Seamus Walsh, and produced by Chris
Finnegan of Screen Novelties.

This is the second time Nickelodeon has partnered with Screen Novelties
on a SpongeBob SquarePants stop-motion episode. SpongeBob
SquarePants: It's a SpongeBob Christmas! debuted December 2012 and
featured Plankton turning everybody in Bikini Bottom from nice to
naughty.

Viewers can visit the SpongeBob
SquarePants page on Nick.com,
the Nick App and the Facebook
page, along with the SpongeBob Facebook
page and SpongeBob
Instagram, to get an exclusive look at the series. Episodes of SpongeBob
SquarePants are available on Nick.com
and the Nick App, along with platforms including iTunes, Amazon Video,
Google Play, Vudu and Nick On Demand.

SpongeBob SquarePants is voiced by Tom Kenny as SpongeBob
SquarePants, an incurably optimistic sea sponge who lives in a pineapple
under the sea; Bill Fagerbakke as Patrick Star, SpongeBob's silly best
friend; Roger Bumpass as Squidward, an aloof cashier of The Krusty Krab
and SpongeBob's neighbor; Clancy Brown as Mr. Krabs, SpongeBob's boss
and greedy owner of The Krusty Krab; Carolyn Lawrence as Sandy Cheeks,
Bikini Bottom's only resident rodent aquanaut and scientist; and Mr.
Lawrence as Plankton, owner of the Chum Bucket and chief rival of Mr.
Krabs.

SpongeBob SquarePants is executive produced by creator Stephen
Hillenburg, who previously worked as a writer, director and creative
director on Nickelodeon's animated series Rocko's Modern Life.
Hillenburg graduated from the California Institute of the Arts with a
master's degree in experimental animation and studied marine biology and
art as an undergraduate. Hillenburg created and executive produced his
first feature film, The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, which
debuted Nov. 19, 2004 and his second theatrical, The SpongeBob Movie:
Sponge Out of Water, hit theaters Feb. 6, 2015. The series is
produced at Nickelodeon in Burbank.

About SpongeBob SquarePants

Since its launch in July 1999, SpongeBob SquarePants has emerged
as a pop culture phenomenon. The series has been the most-watched
animated program with kids 2-11 for more than 15 consecutive years, and
over the past several years, it has averaged more than 100,000,000 total
viewers every quarter across all Nickelodeon networks. SpongeBob
SquarePants is the most widely distributed property in Viacom
International Media Networks history, seen in more than 208 countries
and territories and translated in 55+ languages. The Paramount Pictures
feature film The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water premiered
Feb. 6, 2015, landing at #1 opening weekend. The character-driven
cartoon chronicles the nautical and sometimes nonsensical adventures of
SpongeBob, an incurably optimist and earnest sea sponge, and his
undersea friends.

About Nickelodeon

Nickelodeon, now in its 38th year, is the number-one
entertainment brand for kids. It has built a diverse, global business by
putting kids first in everything it does. The company includes
television programming and production in the United States and around
the world, plus consumer products, digital, recreation, books and
feature films. Nickelodeon's U.S. television network is seen in more
than 90 million households and has been the number-one-rated kids' basic
cable network for 22 consecutive years. For more information or artwork,
visit http://www.nickpress.com.
Nickelodeon and all related titles, characters and logos are trademarks
of Viacom Inc. (NASDAQ: VIA, VIAB).